My intention is to be of aid to you by sharing ideas about turning adversity into growth; I wholeheartedly believe that if it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you.
This writing is a double – to express my gratitude and to share more on ‘Persistence.’
My heartfelt thanks to you for being part of Rising from Falling, for sharing your thoughts with me on these topics, for allowing me this space in your life to offer you what I pray helps you. Please feel free to continue to write to me or connect with me about these if you feel so drawn. Although I’m using a new format, I read every response and I appreciate your taking the time to write to and reach out to me.
How grateful I am to you for reading and e-listening; it heartens me that you might even remotely consider that challenge, mini or massive, may have potential to be converted (if chosen) into something redeeming, for betterment, or even opportunity. I appreciate you and am ever more grateful for you as time marches on.
Worldwide circumstances in 2020 into 2021 seemed or seem uncertain and ambiguous – to say the least. Losses, tangible and intangible, seemed to pile up in families, businesses, communities, and countries – and, perhaps especially, in and on our hearts. Our collective shoulders have felt or feel the immense Weight. Of. It. All.
Some days, doubts plagued me and throwing in the towel felt quite rational and reasonable. I gather I’m not the only one who experienced that sensation, eh?
Persistence, especially in such situations, remains a fruitful aid to navigating through to the Light, to improvement, or to discovery.
Through occasional gritted teeth, or with tears, it was partly Persistence that enabled my reaching full wellness and it’s a way of approaching hardship that continues to assist me.
When several healing attempts fell short or cratered and a heavy blanket of failure laid upon me, my escape from struggle seemed unlikely.
My days were, at times, taken minute by minute.
Who’m I kidding? There were second to second times too.
After months of tenuous struggle and itty-bitty-stepping-it with some major back stepping, I made a decision to roll what turned out to be my final, effective treatment dice.
And, over time, what appeared to be an irretrievable defeat slowly and gradually turned into a fruitful life season which engrained my belief in Persistence’s value.
Aisha Tyler sums my findings more succinctly than I; “success is not the absence of failure; it’s the Persistence through failure.”
My endless thanks to the Divine and my dearest ones for their years of continued efforts and Persistent devotion that ended in my wellness, growth, and, even, this service endeavor. Their support truly allowed me to Persist.
In his chapter on Persistence in ‘The Obstacle is the Way,’ Ryan Holiday describes how, in 1878, Thomas Edison wasn’t alone in seeking a filament for an incandescent lightbulb. Edison was, however, the only person willing to make 6,000 attempts and keep “inching closer each time to the one that would finally work. And, of course, he eventually found it – proving that genius often really is just Persistence in disguise.”
Edison failed over and over – and over – and didn’t quit until he discovered bamboo of all things as his solution which lit our world.
Persistence on my end involved:
• faltering, failing, feeling lost and giving up for the time being … and going to bed to rise the next day and place one foot in front of another giving ‘it’ another whirl,
• turning a deaf ear to detractors and being willing to believe in slim possibilities amidst doubt and confusion (or, at least choosing this as often as I could summon gumption to do so),
• choosing to follow instincts down untrodden paths as this Knowing seemed to aim me towards possible ways through, and/or
• trying tactic after tactic using ‘educated’ guesses even though, or especially when, the likelihood of success appeared nominal.
‘The Importance of Persistence’ by Beryl Lieff Benderly is a 2013 Science article which sheds more light on this topic.
“Physicist-turned-social-science professor Brian Martin” indicates the key [to successful publishing alas I think this has a broader application] is Persisting through rejection and not taking it as personal failing – an excellent reminder yet easier said than done at times.
Martin notes “Persistence is not about hitting your head against a brick wall when there is no chance of breaking through. It is about developing a capacity to … mak[e] a considered judgement about what to do next, then actually doing it. Most of all it is about being willing to fail, learning from the experience, and trying again.”
Practicing Persisting in challenge partially enabled me to reach the Other Side; as Obama’s advisor Rahm Emanuel said “you never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
Surviving and even thriving from adversity is actually possible with Persistence via continued attempts towards a heart-desired result.
Whether you’re rolling along, living through gray days, or barely eking through dark nights of the soul, I deeply believe in your ability to Persist… and, then, rise.
